Jean-Jacques (Emmanuel Mouret himself) and Ariane (Frédèrique Bel) live together happily in their playful world, till the day Jean-Jacques admits to have met another woman. Although he tries to tell her otherwise, Ariane is convinced that he desires this other woman, Elisabeth. With the impending risk of having their relationship end over this supposed desire, she tells him to give in to temptation to quench his desire. Although not wholeheartedly convinced himself, Jean-Jacques none the less goes out to meet the mysterious Elisabeth. It turns out to be a very eventful evening.
Emmanuel Mouret is rapidly establishing himself as a modern master of comedy, theatrical-style, even if he is still perfecting his art. "Fais-Moi Plaisir" stands clearly in line with his previous comedies of "Changement d'adresse" and "Un baisir s'il vous plait", and hopefully not the last either! It is a pity to ruin the thread of unfolding events which take you from one sketch to another, but perhaps an illustration of a -here Jacques Tati style humour- scene:
When Jean-Jacques arrives at Elisabeth's front door, he takes out a piece of paper on which he had written her doorcode and starts punch it in. And it continues
being long enough to be the international phone number of someone in central India. But the door opens. He steps into the hall and into an elevator. Jean-Jacques quickly notices that there are no buttons. Even before the confusion can settle, he hears a voice bidding him welcome into the elevator, and asking him which floor he would like to go to. He replies: "4". The elevator voice asks him to repeat which floor he would like to go to. He says "Eh, fourth floor". The elevator again says that is does not understand, and asks him to repeat. Jean Jacques says: "I'd like to go to the fourth floor
please" and the doors close
As Jean-Jacques charms all the beautiful ladies surrounding him, we too are swept along through the romantic dreamy world of wide-eyed starlets in hidden corners till our brutal awakening back to earth: the ending. While in itself unremarkable, it still comes along as floodlights in the night. It is a curiosity to leave a comedy unsettled, but the ending is out of character with the film. A blemish on a creative and humorous achievement
but watch it none the less...
